A Crescent Rose by Any Other Name
by The Fiercesomest Dragon Ever
Summary: Ruby shuts Weiss out of their dorm room till she apologizes for constantly messing up Crescent Rose's name. Weiss is stubborn. Yang just needs a hairbrush. RubyxWeiss friendship and Yang being a big sister.


**A/N: Inspired by a reviewer who pointed out that Weiss had been referring to Crescent Rose as everything _but_ Crescent Rose in one of my past pieces. Ha. Whoops. Time to fix that.**

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Another weekend at Beacon. The sun was shinning, the birds were singing, and inside the dormitory Weiss Schnee was speechless with rage.

She was also locked out of the team's room. Correction: she had a key card but was being physically denied entrance by a certain partner of hers who had either wedged a chair up under the doorknob or was simply holding the door shut by angling her body against it. Whichever method she had chosen was admittedly effective; no matter how Weiss shoved or tried to force the door, it wouldn't budge.

"Ruby, let me in!" Weiss snarled when she got over her shock at being shut out. She was currently being deprived of a) her weekend homework, which needed touching up b) her bed, which she couldn't remember making this morning and if she hadn't she was going to be mortified, and, finally, c) her dust-damned right to set foot in her own bedroom. If there was anything Weiss hated more than unfinished homework, it was not being allowed to go precisely where she wanted to go. "Open the door this _instant_!"

"Not until you apologize," came the reply, muffled through the white-painted oak.

"For _what_?"

"You keep calling Crescent Rose weird names!"

"That is completely—" Weiss started, but Ruby interrupted by shouting a list:

"'Crimson Rose', 'Crimson Scythe-thing', 'Death Scythe', 'Death Rose-whatsit'…"

"Is that what this is about?" she threw weight against the door again, to no avail, "Ruby, no one _cares_ what you named your oversized weapon."

"It's not oversized—it's the _perfect _size, and _I_ care."

If Weiss had been thinking clearly, she might have been surprised to hear Ruby sound so upset. As it was, however, she only shrieked and rammed her shoulder into the door, which _hurt_. "Open. This. _Door._"

"No! I'm done talking to you!"

"Ruby Rose, so help me—"

"_Done talking._"

After that, no matter how Weiss raged or shrieked, she got no response from inside the dorm room other than a continued, immovable force on the other side of the door. Several alternative methods of entry crossed Weiss's mind, most tempting of which was simply blowing a hole through the wall. Before she could calculate how to accomplish that without incurring huge amounts of property damage, and before going in through the window from outside even occurred to her, a fist closed on the back of her bolero collar pulling her neatly away from the door.

"Whoa, hey, what's going on here?" Yang Xiao Long, big strong sister to Ruby, held Weiss at arm's length while she shrilled demands to let her go and to open the door to the room. "Did you lock yourself out?"

"No, your _sister_ is holding the door shut with an entirely unreasonable amount of force," Weiss gripped Yang's arm, trying to wrest free without damaging her jacket.

"Ohhhh," Yang glanced between Weiss and the door, very close to zero-percent understanding in her lavender colored eyes, "Is this some kind of practical joke? Good one, sis."

"Yang, it's not a joke," from the other side of the door came Ruby's voice, breaking her silence, "Weiss keeps calling Crescent Rose by the wrong name. I'm waiting for her to apologize."

"Is that all?" Yang released Weiss, who overbalanced and tumbled to the floor. "Well, hurry up, Princess, so we can all get inside. I need a hairbrush in the worst way."

"I am _not_ apologizing. I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Okay, now I'm seeing what's up. C'mere for a second, Weiss." The brawler took Weiss by the arm and dragged her around the corner, out of Ruby's earshot. It being the weekend—and a temperate weekend at that—the stone halls of Beacon were all but deserted. "Calm down for a second and think. How would you like it if Ruby were calling your weapon the wrong name all the time?"

"I don't know. It's not like it matters," Weiss straightened her jacket primly. "I don't think she's ever even asked what—"

Yang broke in, "Doesn't mean she doesn't know it." At Weiss's quizzical look, she added, "I think you wrote it on part of a to-do list, or something you left on your desk."

"Prove it."

"Myrtenaster," Yang placed a hand on her hip, "It's a kind of white flower. Well, they come in different colors, but we figured you meant the white one. You know. Sorry if I butchered the pronunciation."

"No, that's… close enough," Weiss ran out of imaginary straightening to do, so she crossed her arms.

"So. What if I messed it up on purpose?" Yang grinned and asked in a mocking voice, "Did you bring your toothpick to practice today? How's myrten-something today? Wanna fight? Ember Celica versus Mister Aster!"

"You sound like an idiot." Weiss felt her color rising, "And nobody. Cares." The words were clipped and short. She turned to walk down the hall. Maybe she could borrow the books she needed for her studies from the library.

"Aw, c'mon, Weiss," Yang matched her pace with that cursed long-legged stride of hers, "What was your last name again? Schneed? Schnide? Little Weissy Schneissy, going for a stroll."

"Stop it," Weiss growled.

"Stop what, Weissmeister? Weisseroo? You can at least be Schnice about asking."

She whirled on the taller girl. "Stop that _right_ now."

"So you _do_ care," Yang walked past her to lean in the doorway to the academic wing, barring her way forward with a smirk.

Weiss was silent, bottling her rage. She recognized what Yang was doing. "That's _my_ name. I'm not a piece of metal."

"You think Myrtenaster is just a piece of metal?"

That checked her. Of course Mytenaster wasn't a piece of metal. Myrtenaster was… Mytenaster was a piece of _her_. Sort of. She shook her head. "That's not what this is about."

"Yes, it is," Yang advanced, and Weiss gave ground. "Is Myrtenaster just a piece of metal?"

"No."

"Neither is Crescent Rose."

"It's just a name," Weiss asserted. Growing up, no one had paid any attention to the name she'd picked for her weapon. Naming inanimate objects wasn't exactly smiled upon in high society, but she had picked the name anyway because… well, that's what you _did_. All famous hunters and huntresses had weapons with names. "Weapons don't need names."

"Sure, but you named yours."

"I…" This time Weiss faltered. True, at first it had been a meaningless ritual, but after hearing Myrtenaster's name come out of Yang's mouth, she realized it had become more than that. It was like a secret, almost. A secret between her and that weapon—that part of her that allowed her to fight. She never would have acknowledged it, and wouldn't even have thought of it in those terms before just now, but that didn't change the fact that for the past few years, whenever she closed her hand over Myrtenaster's hilt, that secret had always been there.

"Do you get it now?" Yang asked more gently, taking her shoulders. "You know she built that thing from scratch, back before Beacon."

"How was I supposed to know it mattered that much to her?" Weiss snapped, pushing her hands away. Yang rolled her eyes.

"Well, not letting you in the dorm room might have tipped you off a little."

"She could have just told me earlier," her tone had just as much bite to it, but she was hesitating. "Look, _don't_ follow me, okay?"

The march back up the hall to the dorm room was long and sufficiently shameful. Most of team JNPR had been eavesdropping. The lot of them dispersed quickly and skillfully making an inordinate amount of noise to indicate they were not paying her any attention whatsoever. Idiots. She glared at Jaune till he took cover behind one of the many pillars lining the walls.

When she at last reached the door to her team's dorm, she took a deep breath. Apologies were not her forte. "Ruby?"

No response aside from a scurrying sound behind the door—Ruby moving to block it again? Weiss kicked herself for not trying the door first. She did so now. It was unlocked, but wouldn't budge.

"Ruby," she sighed, "At least let me in so I can… so I can apologize properly."

Still silence from the other side of the door.

"Look, I…" she heard the door to JNPR's room shut. Yang had joined her in the hall as well. She flipped her golden hair over her shoulder insouciantly, motioning for Weiss to continue. Weiss gritted her teeth, hot to the back of her ears with embarrassment, "I didn't mean to insult you. Your weapon's name is Crescent Rose, it's always _been_ Crescent Rose. I just didn't care before, and I should have, so I'm sorry. Okay?"

The door cracked open, revealing a somewhat skeptical Ruby. She was braced, ready to shut the door again at a moment's notice.

Weiss straightened her posture, but couldn't have colored any more as her partner searched her face.

"You mean it?"

"Why would I say it if I didn't mean it?" Weiss snapped.

"You'll only call her Crescent Rose from now on?"

"That's what I was apologizing for not doing," slight sarcasm. She softened a little, "So yes. Of course."

Silence. Then Ruby let the door open and stepped back to admit Weiss. She looked away, fidgeting with her hands as the words tumbled out, "… Weiss, I'm really sorry for shutting you out of the room. I was mad, and halfway through I got worried that—"

"Apology accepted," Weiss cut her off, unable to listen to her partner's unnecessary remorse. She started to brush past, but hesitated, uncertain if there was more that needed to be said. Before she could figure it out, Yang burst through the door, shoving her way past both girls with reckless abandon.

"Well, glad _that's_ over," she threw her hands up, heading straight to the bathroom. "Next time fight over in JNPR's room instead so I can get to my stuff."

Ruby cracked a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of her neck. Weiss smiled back—only a little—and that seemed to be enough.

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**A/N: Thanks again, you helpful reviewers, you!**


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